Facebook software maker Slide gets $50 mln funding

SAN FRANCISCO Jan 18 Social network software
maker Slide Inc said on Friday it has closed a $50 million
institutional financing round, marking the rising valuations of
start-ups riding market leader Facebook's wave of popularity.

Slide, a 65-employee company founded by Max Levchin, 32,
the Ukranian-born co-founder of online payments company PayPal,
is the creator of several of the most popular software programs
running on Facebook and News Corp's NWSA.N MySpace. Its
Facebook programs include Top Friends, FunWall and SuperPoke!

In an interview, Levchin declined to name the institutional
investors. But sources close to the financing deal said the
investors are Fidelity Investments and T Rowe Price (TROW.O).
(Reporting by Eric Auchard in San Francisco)